Pizza From Scratch

There is nothing like pizza fresh out of a brick oven. That thin-yet-chewy crust blistered to perfection was one of those things I thought was utterly impossible to reproduce at home — until I met Andrew Feinberg.

Several years ago, I wrote a series of articles about Mr. Feinberg, the chef and co-owner of Franny’s in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. As we developed a recipe for clam pizza and pizza dough, we tackled that paramount issue for pizza lovers: how to make great, blistered, puffy-crusted pizza in a regular home oven.

We preheated a pizza stone (you can also preheat a baking sheet) and used a quick bake-and-broil method. The key to this recipe is a using the oven and broiler in combination. A hot oven heats the pizza stone, which bakes the bottom of the pizza crust. Then the broiler comes on and cooks the top of the pizza.

It works like this. Heat the oven and pizza stone at 500 degrees for one hour (if using a baking sheet, heat it for 30 minutes). Roll out the dough and top your pizza, then slide it onto the pizza stone or baking sheet. Bake it for three minutes. Then turn off the oven and turn on the broiler. Broil the pizza until golden, crisp and a bit blistery and charred in places for one to four minutes, depending on the heat of your broiler. (Watch carefully to see that it does not burn.)

If you don’t have a top broiler in your oven, just bake the pizza a little longer, until the cheese is melted and the crust well browned, about 8 to 10 minutes total. But go on how it looks, not by the clock. We’ve found that the time varies widely depending on the oven.

See my video for tips on toppings and a quick lesson in shaping the dough (no, I won’t be twirling it over my head — this is a dough-shaping method for people with low ceilings). You’ll be rewarded with the best pizza pie you ever tasted at home.